Alexander Hammid's sensitive narrative of how a pre-adolescent boy is helped by a psychiatrist to come to terms with his feelings.


This movie is part of the collection: Prelinger Archives

Producer: Affiliated Film Producers
Sponsor: Mental Health Film Board and State of Michigan
Audio/Visual: Sd, B&W
Keywords: Psychology; Medicine: Psychiatry; Children: Psychology

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

Individual Files

Write a review
Downloaded 25,648 times Reviews
Average Rating:

Reviewer: Marysz - - July 16, 2004
Subject: Angry Mom
A sensitive film about ten year old boy Tommy, whose bad behavior reflects the unresolved problems of his parents. Luckily for Tommy, his problems are recognized and he goes into play therapy while his mother talks over the familys problems with a psychiatric social worker. Agnes, Tommys mom, leads a miserable life. Agnes has a belittling, domineering mother and a passive husband. This is one more of the many troubled marriages we see in Hammids films. As was the case with so many women in the fifties, Agnes is too intelligent to be living the drab life she does. When Tommy has trouble with math, shes the one who helps him while Tommys dad Frank shamefacedly reads the newspaper. No wonder she gets splitting headaches.

The film is sympathetic to Agness situation, but theres no insight into the culturally impossible situation shes in. Shes stuck at home all day cooking fussy meals to show what a good mother she is, while ineffectual Frank gets offered a promotion and a chance to go to New York. None of the mental health professionals seem interested in talking directly to Frank. Women are the emotional caretakers of the family here. There are some good scenes with Tommy and his doctor in play therapy, although I hope the toy gun Tommy uses isnt still on the market.

In the end, Frank and Agnes go to New York for a few weeks and Tommy goes to camp. Poor Grandma is left alone with no one to nag or criticize. This is a family that needs to get away from each other. Maybe Frank will get offered a permanent job in New York. Agnes might get a chance to use her intelligence and Tommy will get some breathing space.

Reviewer: cashel - - September 1, 2003
Subject: a great film
This film by alexander hammid is his masterpiece...With a career starting in 1929,he has nexer received due recognitin, although his IMAX film received an oscar and remains the most popular..Now aged 92 and living in new york

Reviewer: Christine Hennig - - March 9, 2003
Subject: Angry Boy (Full Film)
This is one of the best and most intelligent films about "children's problems" that I've seen. 10-year-old Tommy steals money out of his teacher's purse. The principal, rather than punishing him, believes he is psychologically troubled, so he encourages his mother to take him to a local child guidance clinic for psychotherapy. There he works with a compassionate psychotherapist, while his mother receives counseling from a social worker. It is revealed that Tommy's family is troubledhis mom is a control freak who orders her husband and son around, his dad is overworked and under the thumb of his mom, and if that wasn't bad enough, his maternal grandmother lives in the home and bosses his mom around and gives snide remarks to all (gee I wonder where Mom got her control freak tendencies?). Tommy is a quiet kid who internalizes everything, and he has built up a rage about his family situation that expresses itself in misbehavior at school. Fortunately, mom is highly motivated to improve things in the family, and between her therapeutic progress and Tommy's, things gradually get better. I particularly like the scenes of psychotherapy sessions between Tommy and his therapist. Although staged, they seem quite realistic, and you can understand why Tommy grows to like his therapist eventually. The family scenes also have an air of reality about them. Like Activity Group Therapy, this film gives us a glimpse of 50s mental health practices, though this is a lot easier to buy into than the other film.
Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: **. Weirdness: **. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: *****.

Reviewer: Spuzz - - December 27, 2002
Subject: One of the best Social Guidance Films EVER!
This heartwrenching drama, made in 1950, is as fresh today as it was 52 years ago. For ONCE the kids and the adults are'nt treated like morons, and the message is quite evidentally clear.
The acting here is first rate, the cinematography and lighting are quite incredible, especially for a social film. Music is powerful and yet not overbearing. Not 100% free in questionable behaviour though, as the scene with the psychiatrist letting Tommy play with a toy arrow gun is a bit troubling, but other then that, a truly memorable achievement. Highly reccomended!

Shotlist

This simple and affecting story tells how Tommy Randall comes to understand the anger that has led him to steal money from his teacher's purse. It shows how he is helped by Dr. Marshall, a psychiatrist at the Child Guidance Clinic, and how his mother's conversations with Miss Clark, a psychiatric social worker, help her to come to terms with her feelings toward Tommy and her own mother.
Angry Boy portrays the mental health establishment as a benevolent force dedicated to unselfish service. Alexander Hammid's sensitive direction makes this all plausible as well as moving. All kinds of stereotypical and overdetermined behavior is shown in the film, but it never feels plodding or predictable. Much of the movie is structured around flashbacks showing family interactions and events, accompanied by the voices of the clinicians discussing what happened. The feeling of intervention and oversight, maybe even surveillance, is very real here.

ANGRY BOY, " is the dramatization of the story of Tommy Randall, a pre-adolescent boy who because of emotional disturbances engendered by family tensions becomes involved in stealing at school.
As introductory scenes show children's drawings and children's informal relationships with one another, the narrator points out that children are hard to understand. Tommy Randall is shown reacting with hostility toward Miss Turner, his teacher, when she stops a fight between him and a classmate. His face continues to register anger as she leaves the room. On his way out he sees her purse and follows his impulse to steal. As he is removing the money, Miss Turner returns.
The next scene is a telephone conversation between Mr. Kern, the principal, and Tommy's mother. Mr. Kern suggests that Tommy has possibly been involved in other acts of stealing and that he feels strongly that the case is so complex that Mrs. Randall should request the assistance of the Child Guidance Bureau.
Mrs. Randall is next shown at the Bureau in consultation with Miss Clark, a psychiatric social worker. The interview reveals her emotions of anger, disappointment, and sense of failure which she experienced when she learned Tommy had been caught stealing. She reveals again and again her efforts to be a good mother and to give Tommy the love and affection her mother had been too busy to give her.
When Mrs. Randall is ready to leave, Miss Clark suggests that she go ahead without Tommy, who is in conference with the psychiatrist, Dr. Marshall. As the narrator explains that this is the Huron Valley Child Guidance Clinic, in Michigan, and that its services are available to maladjusted and emotionally disturbed children, the film shows Tommy visiting with Dr. Marshall and on a later visit taking the picture story test under a psychologist.
As the staff of the Guidance Clinic discuss their findings, the film shows the incidents they discuss. A kitchen scene reveals Mrs. Randall completely dominating her husband and Tommy, and then in turn being dominated and frustrated by her mother. She becomes so emotionally upset by the incident that she excuses herself from dinner and retreats to her bedroom with a headache.
The dinner is finished without her, but under certain etiquette restrictions set down by her. Mr. Randall and Tommy are just ready to start a game of checkers when she returns and stops the game. She insists that Tommy study fractions with her. When her mother warns that she should let them alone, she says that she is doing this for Tommy's good.
Flashbacks, accompanied by the psychiatric and psychological clinicians' analyses, show the tensions, hostility, and frustration being created by these family relationships. The Bureau staff conference concludes with Miss Clark's suggesting that progress is being made, as Mrs. Randall begins to understand the problems, and with Dr. Marshall hoping that "she will give the boy some air of his own to breathe."
Tommy's subsequent visits with Dr. Marshall show that the boy is becoming more tolerant and is developing the capacity for love and understanding. His admitting that he tripped a little girl and shot Dr. Marshall with a dart because he did not like them helps him to understand and even begin to remove such hate.
As Mrs. Randall is helping Tommy to prepare for summer camp, Tommy reveals how much he will miss Dr. Marshall. He even says that he wants to stay home so he can see him during the summer. Then he has the idea that if he goes to camp he can tell Dr. Marshall about the many things that happen there. Dr. Marshall concludes with the statement that Tommy is learning to express his feelings without hurting himself or others and that more and more parents and teachers are understanding and accepting children as human beings. [Educational Screen, June 1951]




This film contains many images of domestic family life (kitchen shots,dining room table) and counselors offices; with the voiceover narration of the understanding and all-knowing psychiatrist whose patient attention is slowly correcting the problems of this family's situation. The counselors at the Huron Valley Child Guidance Clinic in Michigan sadly discuss the unhappy family life of ten year old Tommy after he is caught stealing from his teacher's billfold. The film begins with the private testimonies of the mother Agnes, and eventually flips to particular scenes of family life as the three counselors discuss the feelings and points of view of the family members.

Close-up of woman in patterned dress talking on telephone
Close-up of man's face with upset expression, looking down.
Close-up of the profile of man's face with housewife in background
Upset, dramatically lit woman with her eyes open widely stares straight ahead lying across a bed, her hand on her forehead as if she is sick.
Dramatic close-up pan moving up edge of bedspread to her fingers massaging her forehead.
Close up of boys face with silhouetted profile.
Boy with look of determination loads dart gun and fires (hits psychiatrist in the head).
Close-up of boy against mother's waist
Close-up of boy stroking mother's bracelet against the pattern of her skirt.
Aggression Violence Hostility Stealing Theft Juvenile delinquency Sex roles Gender roles Women Men Families Psychology Psychiatry Doctors Transference Testing Emotions Stress Safety
Danger Lurks
<BR>